deployment-strategies

Blue/green deployment switches traffic between two identical environments, while canary release incrementally routes a small percentage of users to the new version. This Skill compares both approaches alongside rolling and feature flag deployments to help you choose based on risk tolerance.

To achieve zero-downtime database migrations, use the expand-contract pattern. This Skill explains how to separate schema changes from code changes, allowing backward-compatible database updates that do not interrupt active production traffic.

Use feature flags when you need to decouple deploy from release and test in production safely. This Skill explains how feature flags provide runtime control over visibility, whereas rolling deployments gradually replace instances without runtime toggles.

The expand-contract pattern is a database migration technique for zero-downtime deployments. This Skill details how to expand the schema first, migrate data, and then contract the old schema, ensuring continuous application availability.

Safely test in production by decoupling deploy from release using canary releases or feature flags. This Skill provides guidance on routing a subset of traffic to new versions to validate behavior before a full rollout.

For minimizing downtime and rollback risk, blue/green and canary strategies are highly effective. This Skill compares these release engineering approaches, offering guidance on selecting the right one based on your specific rollback requirements.